Knitting a bolero

I have a dress I really like and want to wear. My problem is that it has short sleeves so I can't wear it unless I have a sweater no top which defeats the purpose or it's quite warm outside and the ac isn't on. That means basically never. But rather than admitting defeat and leaving it in the back of my closet for ever I decided that a bolero would be the answer to my plight. My original plan for this was to find a store that had one and try it on together with the dress and see if I liked it as much as I thought I would. I was however thwarted in this endeavor as I after some googling realized that the only store that had one in the style I wanted was Shein and that is not an option I'm willing to consider. So I decided that the only solution was to make one myself.

Now I have a bit of a confession to make. While I'm a quite good knitter I can't actually read knitting patterns. I usually take one look at them decide I don't know what any of it means and then go on to creating my own pattern. So far that's been fine, I would have made my own alterations anyway and I like problem solving. But that does mean that I can't write a proper pattern for what I did and I'm instead forced to simply write a description of it.

The pattern itself turned out to be quiet easy but I'm not sure a beginner would understand explanation of it. Also the stitch and row count is based on my measurements and this yarn specifically, so alter as needed.

Some pinteresting and thinking later and I had a plan.

If I were to simply make a tube going from one arm to the next with slits for the torso and neck. It should function as a bolero and achieve the look I want. But since a straight line is boring I decided to spice it up with some dramatic bishops sleeves (it's my favorite sleeve type but I had to do some googling to find out what they were actually called). 

Tools and materials

5 skeins of Merino wool yarn 50g and 175 meter. It's soft but not very warm which is fine since its meant to be used during the summer.

3,5 knitting needles, for the cuffs I used a double sided set.

But mostly I used my interchangeable circular set it gives lots of options but it does have a habit of unscrewing while you knit.  

Row counter, mine is cheap plastic and kind of bad, they only go to a hundred but finding any three digit ones is hard. I also only have one because my cat chewed on the other. 

Row markers, useful when you need to make sure both sides are identical. But you can use paperclips and pen and paper. 

Try one 

15 rows with 40 stitches for the cuffs using ribbing to make then stretchy. That then gets doubled twice widening to 160 stitches and becomes a smooth knit. This turned out to be far too wide and it stretched the cuff in a way I didn't like. It also took a long time to make each row. So picking up my other yarn ball I started over keeping the old part for comparison.

Try two

I still used 40 ribbed stitches for the cuffs but now for 20 rows. This is then doubled to 80 stitches. 

Row 30. This try was better than the first but not quite as wide as I wanted. So at I added another 20 stitches or adding one for every four stitches.

This was enough so then I just kept going. and I've now spent most evenings this month knitting on my couch while watching Critical role season 2.

Row 90 and the first ball of yarn is gone. Since at this point I was only halfway on my upper arm I estimate I will need 4 balls in total for this. Since I'd only bought two I'll have to buy more. I had assumed I would have to but it's easy to get more and I have overestimated the amount of yarn needed for a project before.  

Row 150 and since the sleeve now reaches my armpit it's done. Which means it's time for the first slit. So rather than continuing round I simply turned and start goes back and forth. It's a bit tricky going from a circle to a flat but it's manageable if you use several knitting needles. I should have included a picture but honestly black knitting in a badly lit room makes for terrible photos.

Row 165 and it's now halfway up my shoulder and I divide it again making a gap in the middle for my neck. I continuing in the front with my existing yarn and add another ball of yarn to knit the back. While knitting the front I did reduce the width a bit, the idea is to show a sliver of skin between the neckline and the bottom of the bolero. I'm not sure if the reduction made much difference but I didn't want to redo anything so it stayed.

Row 195 (205 for the back) and I've reached the middle. I did a few rows of purled stitches in the middle partly for decoration and partly to keep it from rolling up. Then having reached the middle I did everything again but backwards. I have been using a row counter for this project so the easiest thing was to simply start counting down instead of up and looking up in my notes what I'd done where. 

Sigh, 30 rows left and I'm out of yarn again. So close.

16 rows left and I'm working on the second cuff. Only to realize this is meant to be ribbed and I've not done that. So I'm unraveling the last four rows and redoing them. I kind of feel like it's too late and I should stop for the evening but at the same time I'm so close and want to get it done today. Which is how I've done things before often to terrible results.

And it's done. All that's left is weaving in the ends and removing the row markers.

But that's for tomorrow.

Results

It's cute. The pattern definitely worked and I'm considering making more. Maybe I'll do a colored one or with different sleeves. Merino wool is very soft and this is smooth so wearing it directly against skin isn't a problem. The sleeves being that wide does pose a bit of a problem making it hard to wear a jacket on top but that's a problem with several of my sweaters as well. I think the only solution is to sew a wide sleeved jacket but that's a project for another time.

Taking the picture for this I really wanted to do the Hamlet pose but unfortunately I don't have a skull anymore since Mischka knocked it of the shelve and broke it. 

More and more I have come to realize that doing something myself is the easiest way to get what I want. It also wasn't that expensive and the cost ended up roughly the same as if I'd bought it, which is a moot point since there wasn't any in this style anyway.

As an extra benefit it doubles as a scarf and the sleeves are wide enough that I could use them as pockets at least for small and light things.